THE Road Safety Advisory Council has warned drink-drivers they will be forced off the road after a series of high-range offenders lost their licences in the Launceston Magistrates Court yesterday.
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Chairman Jim Cox said the fact that so many had fronted court with high readings, including one man who blew almost five times the legal limit, showed that the latest Tasmania Police strategy targeting drink-drivers was effective.
‘‘The reality is, if you drink and drive, you are going to get caught,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s a very good indication that the courts are not going to show leniency to people who do stupid things.’’
Mr Cox said the cases reinforced the new ‘‘Real Mates’’ social media campaign, launched last week, which highlighted the fact that ‘‘real mates’’ don’t let each other drink and drive.
In one of the most serious cases yesterday, P-plater Callum Leslie Mulder, 18, had been hooning in the Launceston central business district on August 10 at 6.03am and smashed into a shopfront in Brisbane Street.
Mulder fled the scene and when police found him, he said he had been drinking ‘‘a fair bit of everything’’ since about 6pm the evening before.
The former South Launceston Football Club captain should have had a zero blood-alcohol reading, but blew 0.150.
Magistrate Reg Marron said that because of Mulder’s ‘‘complete act of stupidity’’, the glazing apprentice had lost his girlfriend, his accommodation, his licence and his car, which he was still paying off.
He fined Mulder $1500, disqualified him from driving for 24 months, ordered him to pay for the damage he had caused and then announced that he had won the morning’s ‘‘sartorial award’’.
Other drink-drivers who pleaded guilty before Mr Marron yesterday were:
■Paul William Sullivan, 33, a butcher, blew 0.243 after he smashed into a fence and ruptured his car’s fuel tank in Westbury Road, Prospect, and had refused a taxi offered by Olde Tudor Hotel staff, who alerted police, on August 14. Fined $1800, disqualified from driving for 30 months.
■David Eric Hellinga, 49, a learner driver instructor, blew 0.213 in a random breath test at Deviot on August 8. Fined $850, disqualified from driving for 12 months.
■Jeffrey James Howell, 49, of Longford, drank seven cans of full- strength beer on a fishing trip, blew 0.088 in a random breath test on August 16. Fined $600, disqualified from driving for six months.